An associate professor of the practice at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, Petranka will teach short courses to MBA students all over the world. He just returned from a trip to London, and he said the job will take him to Chile, Turkey and other international locations in the next year.
“It wasn’t really about the money. I mean, the money was nice, but the nature of the job was something I didn’t honestly even know existed,” he said. “It was one of those opportunities that just comes once in a lifetime.”
Andrew Darvin, a former student of Petranka’s who graduated in May, said he is sad for future students who won’t get to study with him.
“He’s a great lecturer, just a really interesting guy and he really seems to care about his students,” Darvin said. “Obviously I wish him well, but it’s sad from that point of view.”
Petranka said the most difficult transition will be no longer teaching undergraduates.
“I actually love teaching MBAs, but when you’re dealing with undergrads that have the world ahead of them, when you’ve realized that they’ve just switched to a path that’s probably going to make them happier — that feeling of just being so happy for them,” he said. “I don’t have kids of my own and I feel at times that those are my kids.”
Though the loss of undergraduate students hits hardest, Petranka said that the conflicted basketball loyalties run a close second.
“I have a whole lot of light blue in my wardrobe right now, and I’m not comfortable turning it to dark just yet,” he said. “I think the transition is going to be to wear a Fuqua shirt, where you know, it’s Duke, but it’s a very specific sub-part of Duke.”
